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Does your business have a story to tell? Thu, 26 Feb 2015 21:05:50 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.14 Rules For a Hilarious Social Media Campaignhttp://www.functionwriting.com/2015/02/rules-hilarious-social-media-campaign/
http://www.functionwriting.com/2015/02/rules-hilarious-social-media-campaign/#commentsThu, 26 Feb 2015 20:57:14 +0000http://www.functionwriting.com/?p=2481Awhile back I finally admitted to myself that I would never understand society.

It’s because of my ignorance that I thought I would never succeed as a social media campaign manager. How can I engage with an audience when I don’t watch the news and I don’t know what’s going on around the world?

Answer: I’m a funny guy.

1. Develop a Fluid Personality

Instead of trying to steal someone else’s persona I just use my own. It’s why I get hired to oversee social media campaigns – I stopped copying others and committed to being myself. And myself is fun!

If that’s not good enough? Then the client is free to go elsewhere. It takes time to get comfortable with social media but as long as you’re natural across all your channels (and you’ve got mad writing skills) then your campaign will grow naturally.

Nobody likes the guy who sits around the table talking about himself all night.

2. Assign Focus to Each Channel

No, being hilarious and dropping random references like a Family Guy re-run won’t secure your reign as a Social Media Kingpin. Pay attention to your respective audiences. There may be some overlap, but you’ll reach more people if you cater to each audience.

For example, for the following channels I work from a home base of guidelines.

When you establish common ground in your social media campaign, you transform your channels into a lifestyle for the client. Common ground enables easy sharing and speaks directly to a specific audience.

4. Work At Original Content

A healthy social media campaign requires thinking on the go. The future of every campaign is always a bit cloudy – adapt by trying new techniques based on feedback from your audience.

Don’t be afraid to share content from a new source or feed, but don’t let it stand-in for original content too much. The backbone of social media is original content.

Social media is supposed to be fun. We all internalize content more efficiently when we enjoy it.

What do people enjoy reading, watching or viewing? If you can answer that question and make ‘em laugh while you’re doing it, then your clients will be happy and you can continue telling jokes on the internet for money.

Not like, man I could use a shot of San Pellegrino thirsty, but like the Sahara Desert doesn’t like how close it is to work so it’s packed up and set up shop in my throat thirsty.

So yeah, so fucking thirsty.

It was a precursor of awful events to come.

Here’s Some Context

Let’s back up to two days before this horrific dream.

I’m a freelance writer who also coaches hockey. I’m super busy doing things I love every day (sometimes all day).

It’s a few days before the Christmas Holidays begin and I have two or three small jobs to wrap up when a potential new client contacts me for a website project.

I’m usually all over these projects, and this situation is no different, it’s just a bit rushed because the holidays are right around the corner and the client understandably wants some traction before everyone heads out a la Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation.

So, I set up a client discovery meeting and settle into the knowledge that I have plenty of time to get things done before Friday.

Lightning Bolt

When I coach hockey, I call unforeseen circumstances Lightning Bolts.

Lightning Bolts could be things like:

A broken down bus

Schedules being wrong

Players getting injured

In marketing or in life? Lightning bolts could mean gnarly head colds preceded by a night dreaming of sand being poured down my throat with a steel wool chaser.

I woke up a few hours before my meeting not knowing where I was, what my middle name could possibly be or why the paint in my bedroom was peeling under the intensity of one thousand burning suns.

I was sick.

AND NOW STRESS

Son of a bee-sting!

I can’t see straight let alone speak in a manner resembling a professional writer-guy!

How am I supposed to meet with the client and put them at ease with regards to their investment in me?

They’re in a hurry, they want the work fast-tracked!

It was a tough spot to be in. I had a decision to make.

Do I suck it up, cram my throbbing brain into a vice and pound out what I know will be a sub-par job?

Or do I cancel the meeting, potentially lose the contract and go back to wandering my apartment aimlessly like a drunk tyrannosaurus rex?

Be Smart

Listen, whether you’re a coach, a freelancer or a birthday clown, all you ultimately have is your legacy. To churn out less than a stellar effort just to please a client is to pour black ink over that legacy.

It was tricky coming to a decision in my delirium but I managed to email the client, cancel the meeting and ask them to put their over-sized mountain goat back in its cage for its’ trotting upon my head was causing much grief.

I chose to preserve the legacy and risk losing the job.

Sometimes it’s ok to postpone or miss a deadline. It’s all about quality over quantity. I told the client I would totally understand if they needed to look elsewhere, but as luck would have it they respected my honesty, told me to go to the doctor and said they’d look forward to talking again in the new year.

Awesome.

…And yes, I wrote this while still intoxicated by the fever dreams. I don’t know if it made sense or not.

it’s a guarantee that your office wifi will fail when you have a meeting with someone new

if I go inside I will disturb people around me

if I sit here in my truck Starbucks will get mad because I’m stealing their internet

should I go in and order a coffee when I’m done?

nah.

The freelance life is interesting.

This All Sounds Like a Gigantic Hassle

And you know what? It was a gigantic hassle. The meeting was scheduled for 9am. I got home from the gym with plenty of time to have a shower and clean up my act beforehand. Ten minutes before our scheduled start and the internet has less power than an igloo on a beach in July.

Do I snap?

Do I freak out?

Nope. I look for a solution.

Sure, I could just pick up the phone, but then my hands wouldn’t be free to take notes. No, my standard meeting conditions must be met else I get flustered during the meeting.

Flustered beforehand?

No problem.

I’m like a duck: cool as a cucumber on the surface, paddling like mad underneath.

Freelancing Equals Problem Solving

So I grab my laptop, hop in my truck and quickly drive exactly one block to the Starbucks by my house (my house is my office).

I set up shop with a lady in a minivan staring me down. “What, you’ve never stolen internet in your life?” I yell to myself. It’s November and it’s cold so my windows are up. She can’t hear me. I yell out loud anyway.

The moment I open up Skype the client is already calling me.

We chat about the weather. We chat about the genesis of both our companies. I wax intellectual about the life of a freelancer and the types of projects I’m working on these days.

It was one of the more relaxed, enjoyable and productive meetings I’ve ever had.

This Still Sounds Like a Gigantic Hassle

One of the reasons I enjoy freelancing is the situations I find myself in. Sure, if I worked for a large firm the wifi would flow like human growth hormones at a major league baseball game, but I’d be missing out on all the hilarious shit that seems to happen to me.

For example, I write for a magazine called MyHydrolife. My editor, Jenn; well, I never get emails from her. They just don’t come through. She sends ‘em but I don’t get ‘em. So I pick up the phone. Jenn phones me. Jenn still wants me to write for them despite the hassle of getting in touch with me.

Thus, I get to talk to another human being which is exciting for me.

I started writing for a living because it was the thing I was best at. For now at least, I’m going to keep going because of how interesting things get.

Got issues? Solve them. Have problems? Find solutions. Your career will be much richer for it.

And yes, I’m writing this in a local coffee shop down the street from Starbucks.

]]>http://www.functionwriting.com/2014/11/freelancing-equals-problem-solving/feed/0It Takes 3 Years to Become a Writerhttp://www.functionwriting.com/2014/11/to-become-a-writer/
http://www.functionwriting.com/2014/11/to-become-a-writer/#commentsFri, 14 Nov 2014 13:00:37 +0000http://www.functionwriting.com/?p=2461Three years ago I set sail towards a career as a freelance writer. I quit my job in my hometown, moved to the coast and started building a one-man writing company.

Today, November 12th, 2014, I finally feel confident in calling myself a professional writer.

How to Become a Writer

Everything moved so slowly in three years ago. When I look back, however, it seems like time is passing me by all too quickly.

You see, in the early days of starting a new business, you do a lot of things that give the perception of professionalism. Things like adding the word ‘group’ in the title of your company to try to seem bigger than you actually are.

These mistakes cause time to figuratively slow down because they soak up so much of your attention.

For example, I used to answer emails with things like “we’ll get back to you,” and “everyone over here is excited by your special project.”

What a load of horse-garbage.

It’s funny how success seems to catch up with you once you ignore the fear of failure. Because, in truth, that’s all that drives most people in the early days of starting out on their own. I was afraid of everything.

Commitment to the Craft

My friend Kyle Fox hates the word ‘craft’ when describing your line of work. Which is interesting, because I think Kyle is a pretty crafty and well-spoken web developer.

Early on, I hesitated to call my writing a ‘craft’. Maybe it was because Kyle brainwashed me. Maybe it was because I didn’t want to sound pretentious.

To become a writer, you have to work. So writing was work, plain and simple. These days, however, the work side of my craft allows me to enjoy the craft side of my work. Cool, right?

So why the sudden confidence?

It stems from being ok with the fear of rejection. I’m comfortable with my personal style, which is an element of good writing, says Kurt Vonnegut. No, I’m not a novelist yet. I still need to write about mundane topics in order to pay the bills, so style rightfully still takes a back seat to substance.

The difference now, though, is that I’m able to find the story in those mundane topics. I’m a writer now because I can do some research, sit down and bang out tight copy that interests the target demographic.

My procrastination is gone.

My fear of lacking ideas is gone.

My urge to fit in with influential writers in my industry is gone.

I started writing because I was good at it. I became a writer because I worked at it.

You’re Defined By Your Mistakes

And holy hell, I’ve made plenty. I still don’t know when to send invoices, I get distracted and I ramble. But, everything I see, everything I read, I critique the story written behind it. I question the motivations and the natural ebbs and flows that make stories possible.

I see the world in a new light, through the eyes of a writer.

I sit down and the words come to me, a fact I couldn’t claim three years ago when I was in a rush to find new clients and secure new contracts.

I’m finally a writer.

And it only took three years.

]]>http://www.functionwriting.com/2014/11/to-become-a-writer/feed/0The Beginning of a New Storyhttp://www.functionwriting.com/2014/11/beginning-a-new-story/
http://www.functionwriting.com/2014/11/beginning-a-new-story/#commentsTue, 04 Nov 2014 19:12:14 +0000http://www.functionwriting.com/?p=2453A couple months ago I was driving home from Grand Forks, British Columbia after attending my sister’s sister-in-law’s funeral.

It was one of the worst days of my life. It was worse for my sister. It was worse still for my 2 brothers-in-law.

Seven days earlier this same sister and my now-brother-in-law got married. It was the same day their 13 year-old boxer succumbed to old age.

This is all completely true.

My sister’s sister-in-law left far younger than she should have. I understand that this happens to people everywhere. Loved ones leave, friends go. Our family is fortunate because of our strength and our ability to take a step back and appreciate the universe in all its cosmic complexities.

It doesn’t make it any less sad.

So as I drove through the enormous coastal mountains, their forests concealing secrets like a dog hides a bone, thoughts of the town of Grand Forks and the atmosphere surrounding the funeral filtered in and out of my mind in the pale moonlight.

And then, peering through the dense wall of branches, I saw her.

A young girl, huddled around a fire, chanting in a language I didn’t recognize.

A Picture No One Else Can See

I didn’t know her name. All I knew was that she had run away from home. She wasn’t alone, others had joined her. They sat cross-legged around the small fire, holding hands.

The trees towered around them, both a prison and a gateway to somewhere else. Another world. Another dimension.

The image of the young girl and her friends stuck with me for the rest of the drive home. Indeed, days passed and I learned more about the girl and her companions.

Her name was Andy. Andy wanted to know more about the universe, even though she thought she knew a lot already.

I didn’t question what I saw over the next few weeks, but Andy and her troupe slowly began to reveal themselves to me.

What became strikingly obvious was that Andy didn’t find herself out in the woods in the middle of the night by choice.

A Most Powerful Group of Teenagers

Andy and the occult, I called the strange group in the forest. There was Andy, Hector, Robyn and Matt. Matt came later, and he knew small facts about seemingly unimportant things. Robyn and Hector were friends, although Hector clearly wanted more than that.

And there was Liberty. Liberty Finch.

Andy Archibald and Liberty Finch. Once friends, once adversaries and soon-to-be-enemies.

I didn’t know why the two girls would become enemies, but I knew it was inevitable. They had different motivations, different reasons for existing.

And their existence was in question. No, not in question.

Their existence was threatened.

A Question Without an Answer

No one knows exactly why bad things happen. Trying to define existence will drive you crazy. If you believe you already know the truth of existence, then you already are crazy.

Andy Archibald sees both sides of every issue. She boasts about her ability to help people even though it often ends badly. Sometimes it ends violently.

Sometimes people take issue with those who would ask the questions. Are we confined to this existence? This form? How will our energy live on once our bodies go?

The answers might not exist, but we’re defined by the ability to ask the questions. Indeed, to ask is to journey. To embrace the sadness, the anger and the happiness is to live.

Andy Archibald wants to know where our emotions originate. Even if she has to journey to another dimension to find out.

A Tale in Two Dimensions

Andy Archibald floats off to the side of my consciousness every moment I’m awake. Sometimes she tells me secrets about the places she’s visited and the terrifying beings she’s met.

I thought she was random, like a note in a bottle dropped on top of my head.

This morning, I realized for the first time that my sister’s sister-in-law’s departure was the genesis for Andy and the Occult. I don’t think I’m trying to say goodbye or grieve. I don’t think I’m trying to provide my family with a story of strength and resolve.

What I do know, is that one person, real and beautiful and inspirational, has left. Her physical strength gone, her life slowly faded away.

I look off at the trees and imagine teenage cults summoning demons from other dimensions.

I see people in their cars stopped at red lights and I picture them going home to a family of sadistic aliens hell-bent on taking over the planet.

Sometimes I forget that I’m driving. I lose myself in the music and I picture evil magicians taking a bow on a stage after they cruelly inject victims with what the audience thinks is a harmless stage prop.

There are times when people are talking to me and I forget that I’m not talking to a disguised spirit.

It’s in this way that writing is my concrete shoe, pulling me down deep into the black waters of my consciousness.

However, this is also my means of exploration, the vessel with which I travel through my thoughts and my ideas.

Rambling Doesn’t Work…

I used to get embarrassed by my rambling. It didn’t suit my line of work. I’m supposed to keep sentences tight, paragraphs short and ideas concise.

If we’ve met or you happened to hear my speak at Wordcamp Edmonton a couple years back, you know that I have trouble with this.

For the last few years I’ve worked hard to write short, to-the-point stories for growing companies. This is how I pay the bills – I get in the heads of my clients’ clients in order to deliver helpful information. It’s working out well, I’m busier than ever.

However, something happened as I got better at my job.

My passion for writing suffered.

…But I’m Good at Rambling

I chose a career in writing because I can hardly control the places my mind takes me. Wondrous places, scary places, evil places. I’m never left wanting for an idea.

A career in writing chose me because improper use of ‘your’ gives me the chills.

“For most people, this area of the brain only lights up at restful times when one is not focusing on work or even daily tasks. For writers and creatives, however, it seems to be constantly activated.”
M.W. Griffith on Fink’s study

The Art of Cutting

The most important lesson I’ve learned as a freelance writer is that no one appreciates your ideas as much as you do.

Cut, cut and cut some more. Individual words, sentences, paragraphs and entire ideas – cut ‘em. If they don’t match your central topic, throw them overboard. Half of this essay will die on the floor beside me because it’s not pertinent.

Oh sure, Kelvin might find a correlation between writing and an epic undersea battle with the enormously-tentacled kraken, and maybe it’s narcissistic to assume you won’t, but you don’t have all day to read this, either.

Cutting out impertinent information transformed me from a busy, hard-working writer to a relaxed, hard-working writer.

Writing the Fiction We Live

Good god I’m rambling.

“…writing is about being able to create and control a world.”
M.W. Griffith

Embracing my obsession with writing abstract fiction has probably saved my career. Writing fiction for myself is like raking the leaves from the front yard; all the disorganized, dying thoughts that don’t actually help anyone are removed, leaving a clean and polished product that impresses the neighbours.

With fiction, I’m in control. My belief that I can pull the strings on an entirely made-up universe prevent me from trying to pull those strings in real life.

When it comes to non-fiction, I live in a world that already exists, a world with its own twists and turns. It’s a world I must embrace if I want to pay my rent next month.

However, there’s room for both to co-exist. People respond to storytelling. My clients’ readers tell me all the time how they appreciate the personal touches in my work, the specific stories that relate to the content at hand.

That being said, I don’t have any clients who want to read about demons from another dimension or a spooky hotel with a doctor who’s been transplanting brains into new bodies for 300 years.

]]>http://www.functionwriting.com/2014/10/trapped-deep-concrete-shoe-writing-fiction/feed/1The First 3 Hurdles to Clear With New Blogging Clientshttp://www.functionwriting.com/2014/09/4-hurdles-new-blogging-clients/
http://www.functionwriting.com/2014/09/4-hurdles-new-blogging-clients/#commentsSat, 20 Sep 2014 11:00:19 +0000http://www.functionwriting.com/?p=2441Huzzah, the contract is yours! Pop the cork on the champagne and get your plaid pants on, cuz this party is about to get real!

Winning a new client always feels phenomenal, but there’s a special sense of accomplishment that comes with locking down new blogging clients.

For starters, ideally you’ve been hired to create content on a consistent basis. Sure, there might be a test run involved, but new blogging clients who believe in your work and are pleased when you follow through with helpful, actionable content are going to want to keep you around.

The following four steps usually occur after a contract is secured, but the truth is that this process might actually be the ticket to actually winning the client over in the first place.

With that in mind, it’s time to define your new boss’s boss: the audience.

It’s important to distinguish things like salary, work schedules and daily habits so you can develop content that speaks straight to a specific human being. If you can hit the right notes, then the reader is more likely to take action.

3. Audience Pain Points

Everything gets tied up when you specify the manner in which you can improve the lives of your readers. Why should they read your blog posts, anyway? What are they going to get in return for spending 3-5 minutes reading your article?

In case you’re having trouble getting started, here are 3 things every person on Earth wants more of:

money

time

energy

How can your post save your reader one or three of these things? Let’s use the seaplane company again for pain point examples, here’s what’s rubbing this particular company’s customers the wrong way:

there aren’t enough hours in the day

need to make more money in less time

are tired of distractions, wasting time and hassles

want to get their work done

high level of technology awareness

mobile capable

New Blogging Clients Want Action

Once we have a clear picture of our readers, we can almost see the content come to life. We can write articles that explain the benefits of air travel, offer tips for flying and teach people how to save time on the road. All of these potential topics speak directly to our reader and will lead them back to the source of all this blogging goodness: your client and their services.

This is a habit I use every time I meet with potential new blogging clients, but a similar process could be used for new clients regardless of your medium.

Anyone have any helpful habits they use when cracking open a brand new campaign?

The greatest thing about Breaking Bad is that whatever the audience expected to happen, the opposite occurred. It dawned on me fairly early that this was a clear tactic the show’s writers were using.

This all started when Walter approached the captured drug dealer in Jesse’s basement during season 1. Knowing nothing whatsoever about the show (other than the fact meth and the word “bitch” would be involved frequently), I figured Walter would release the young man.

NOPE. This did not happen. But then, even as I was resigned to the fact that Walter was going to kill the man with a broken piece of plate (which in itself was a flip-mode because we were led to believe that the drug dealer genuinely just wanted to be freed), Walter choked him to death with Jesse’s bike lock.

Breaking Bad Writing Rule #2: Leave People with Something to Talk About

Where the hell is Walter’s money? Does anyone else care about this?

The show’s writers brilliantly trapped their audience into a never-ending circle of questioning and doubt by leaving loose ends. And we’re not talking Lost loose ends here, where a bunch of junk that didn’t really contribute to the story anyway was left to interpretation.

No, Breaking Bad’s writers left in question the single-most important element of the show, the entire motivation by which Jesse and Walter (and Gus and Saul Goodman and so on) operated on: the money.

Breaking Bad was about money. For the entire 5 seasons, the characters pursued money. And now the show is finished and no one knows where the money is.

Breaking Bad Writing Rule #3: Build Flawed Characters

“You have to watch this show, the two main characters are complete losers.”

This is how my sister tried to convince me to binge-watch Breaking Bad, and she was bang-on. However, I don’t believe Walter and Jesse are losers, I believe they just didn’t know what they were doing. Can anyone argue that point?

Audiences relate well with failure because we’ve all felt the sharp sting of failure. Pixar’s number one rule of storytelling says that we admire characters more for the act of trying than for succeeding.

I believe Walter and Jesse were virtuous. Well, at least it starts out that way.

In the end, the evil things they do seem virtuous because we’ve been through hell and back with them.

Breaking Bad Writing Rule # 4: Shift Allegiances Over & Over Again

Can anyone count how many times the protagonists in Breaking Bad became the antagonists?

As the show progresses and the DEA inches closer to nabbing the infamous Heisenberg outlaw, Hank becomes the caring uncle who steps in to guide his nephew when Walter starts to go off the deep end.

Walter and Jesse are cooking meth. They’re introducing hardcore drugs to the streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico and eventually to the entire southwestern United States and into the Czech Republic.

So who’s the real enemy? The drug-pedalling millionaires or the blue collar cop trying to clean up the streets and avoid a feud with the Mexican drug cartel?

Breaking Bad Writing Rule # 5: Don’t Let Anyone Forget Anything

The last reason Breaking Bad was so addictive was because it was one linear storyline that began with the show’s pilot. Every twist, every turn and every mind-blowing plot-point originated from the first episode.

Everything.

There wasn’t a single episode that mailed it in, as is so common with other one-hour dramas.

With this tactic, the writers were able to craft a believable story while simultaneously developing their characters into near-achievers – characters who could never quite get ahead, whatever their motivations turned out to be.

The linear storyline so apparent while binge-watching Breaking Bad allowed the audience to create their own memories of the show’s history. Certain aspects of the show no doubt stick out in different ways to different people – the show moved fast, but every detail was important to the development of the story.

—–

Vince Gilligan and his team created their own universe inside the Breaking Bad writer’s room. There was a tangible conflict between where a certain character’s head was at vs the action demanded by the show’s outline. It’s fascinating to consider a show about meth-dealing junkies as a story people could relate with, except the presence of Walter’s cancer made it all possible.

In the end, Breaking Bad is a question posed to all of us, though it’s best answered in the mind of a relatively innocent bystander who ends up living through a hell more intense than that experienced by any other characters on the show:

As you twirl the curling grey hair at your temples with your fingers, you sip hot coffee and silently congratulate yourself for making such a wise decision those many years ago.

The decision to hire Kelvin Cech from Function Writing to help Vine make the world a better place.

Here are the 5 reasons why future-you would have hired me (Kelvin) to write posts for Vine Marketing & Design.

1. I’m Professional, Punctual & Fun to Work With

If hiring a writer was easy, media companies would hand-pick creative types out of a line-up based on how many cups they downed at the coffee shop that day.

Luckily for me, this isn’t the case (because I only drank two today).

I don’t miss deadlines.

I take my work seriously, but I sure do enjoy it.

I’m fun to deal with over email.

I know how to ask the right questions.

I’m a pretty laid-back writer, but I also take pride in being the hardest-working member of my team.

2. I’ll Write Focused Content for a Specific Target Audience

The tone in this post’s introduction is a bit tongue in cheek. I wrote it this way because of the tone of the job posting over at ProBlogger and the research I did at Vine’s website. Vine is looking for an “awesome and fun blogger to join the team”, which is right up my alley.

With my introduction, I wanted to demonstrate:

how much fun I have writing

copy shaped to a specific audience

engaging a reader immediately through storytelling

In the case of this post, I’m writing for a creative director or project manager at a socially-conscious business that’s using their marketing super powers to make the world a better place.

Vine and Vine’s audience are the type of people with whom I want to work and for whom I want to write.

3. I’m a Creative, Boundary-Pushing Writer

Obviously Vine is going to hire a candidate they deem to be an excellent technical writer, but these days avoiding comma-splice abuse and knowing how to verb nouns simply isn’t enough.

My degree in english isn’t what’s keeping me employed, though it certainly helps. No, I stay employed by staying on top of current trends.

For example, these days a content writer isn’t worth his or her salt if they aren’t able to craft compelling stories that encourage readers to take action.

Storytelling is how content is currently being delivered online, and writers (and the companies they work for) who don’t adapt to this fact are losing readers in a big hurry.

4. I’ll Earn You More Than You Spend on Me

As the owner, accountant & janitor of Function Writing, I understand that spending more than you earn is an activity reserved for traditional advertising agencies who still hire teenagers to lazily spin cardboard hot dog signs at passing motorists.

Success in online marketing is measured in returns. If Vine Marketing & Design experiences success because of my work, then I experience success. Everybody wins!

5. My Social Media, Copywriting & Content Marketing Experience

To build on my last point, and to be completely serious, I believe Vine should hire me not only because of my writing chops, but because of my experience writing about things that matter to the online marketing community.

i want to write blog posts for Vine that people enjoy, share and associate with Vine and the 7 principles of social business. I’m passionate about marketing one’s company with one’s own expertise, and this passion shines through in my writing every day.

I can write posts for Vine about:

social media

email marketing

business development

branding & audience understanding

social responsibility

Do It With Joy

Writing is my tool of choice when it comes to helping people.

The reward I receive helping people get through their day is gigantic – it’s why I do what I do, and it’s why I do it with a smile on my face.

… and I can do it with joy.

I believe there’s an opportunity for a relationship between Vine and yours truly beyond blogging that will be mutually beneficial and low maintenance for a long time.

Thanks for reading. Please respond to my mention on twitter or email me if you’re interested in my services.

Kelvin Cech
Function Writing

kelvin@functionwriting.com

For a couple more samples of pertinent work, check out these 3 posts I recently wrote:

]]>http://www.functionwriting.com/2014/08/vine-marketing-design-hire-kelvin-write/feed/0How Growing a Gnarly Beard This Summer Made Me a Better Writerhttp://www.functionwriting.com/2014/08/growing-beard-made-me-a-better-writer/
http://www.functionwriting.com/2014/08/growing-beard-made-me-a-better-writer/#commentsSat, 09 Aug 2014 15:00:23 +0000http://www.functionwriting.com/?p=2401What started with an insignificant whisker became a twisted fury of hairy carnage.

Let me explain.

This summer I grew a beard. I didn’t intend to grow a beard. This is just something that happened naturally. I don’t know why I did it. I still don’t.

The thing about growing a beard is that your face doesn’t actually change all that much, but your persona changes drastically.

“You have a beard!”

Everyone from new clients I Skyped with to my tattoo artist to my shocked mother made basically the same comment. They were excited to see me and my hairy lower-face region. I was excited by their reaction.

Until the inevitable “why did you do that?”

Uhh…

Explain Yourself Over & Over Again

The questions began sometime around mid-May, and I found I didn’t have any really interesting answers.

Playoff beard? Nope.

Lose a bet? Ha ha. No.

The problem with not having an interesting story behind a new development is that your audience is CRUSHED when you come clean. “I just kinda grew a beard” is a grossly insufficient explanation, apparently.

So I started making shit up.

I told people I was growing a playoff beard. I claimed my cheek sweater was an ode to a former english professor of mine. I said I was doing an experiment on human interaction.

My beard took on a life of its own to the point where I actually wished one of those reasons was true. Because in reality, the truth was boring.

Populating a Formula

Once I committed to creating new explanations for my beard, I found my creative instincts naturally took over. I was obsessed with the character I would become with my next blatant lie. I was fascinated with the fiction created from the mystique of my miraculous beard.

Art imitates life. I’ve believed in this creed since my grade 11 english class with Miss Luyckfassel. She challenged my writing to try new things (even if it meant missing out on easy B’s and A’s). Miss Luyckfassel doesn’t have a beard, luckily, but she did teach a spastic young writer to push the boundaries of writing and use new tools to extract ideas from a distracted young mind.

The Takeaway

If you had a clear picture of where you needed to go, how would you get there?

How would you explain the end of the story? How would you build a beautiful, functional website? How would you fill in the details so the project becomes so much more than the sum of its parts?

Build a structure and then get creative with the process of filling in the blanks.

In the world of online marketing and instant communication, we’re often guilty of reaching for an end-game we don’t fully understand, of getting off to a quick start and petering out because we don’t fully understand where we’re headed.

Writing the Story

Growing a beard made me a better writer.

Over the past few weeks my passion for fiction has muscled its way back into my mind because of my woodsman-like persona.

A career in writing allows me to use that passion in non-fiction form. The articles and web copy I’m writing these days are based in reality, but they utilize elements of imagination and intrigue.

I’ve realized that I love my career because of the stories I get to create. This is my niche within the copywriting industry; storytelling. My niche is what I’m best at in the world, although it has taken a few years (and a few whiskers) to find it.